Christmas No. 3

Christmas is the best. It's by far my favorite time of year. People are so nice. Everyone seems to love everyone else. The weather is nice and cold, for the most part. It's the season of love.

This is our third Christmas together. The first Christmas was a bit hectic. We shopped together for our own Christmas presents, and spent way too much money on each other. We weren't sure how to make Christmas function as a married couple. Our second Christmas we were living with Brett's parents, and at the time his sister Krista was visiting with her husband Andy and their kids. That year was blurry. Kids keep you busy. We played lots of Rockband that year.

So this year.

Christmas No. 3.

I wanted to start a few traditions. Do something to really get us in the Christmas Spirit. My family is big on traditions. We watch It's a Wonderful Life while decorating the tree, we always buy a real tree, we have a yearly giant themed dinner party. But trying to start Christmas traditions with a party of two isn't so easy. I imagine having kids simplifies this, but I don't have any.

So Brett and I started with decorations, shopping, and Mariah Carey Christmas.

Then we added our own version of the twelve days of Christmas. I will now introduce you to the Day Family Advent Calender. Let's hope it's around for years to come.

So here is how it works. Obviously each day you open one and eat a candy. But our calender has a Christmas-ish activity for each day. Finding 12 things to do each day for two people took some serious brain storming. So I plan to report for the next 12 days on the what we did. I figured this would be the best way to get us in the spirit and help us create traditions at the same time. Feel free to steal some of our ideas, I had to use ideas from other people too.

I want this Christmas this year to mean a bit more than Rockband and presents. I love Christmas because of all the time I get to spend with my family. I love Christmas because I love Jesus. This year I am determined to have Christmas be a happy, wonderful, family packed, Jesus loving Christmas.